The Fisher King.....depressing and inaccurate. I don't think they should have used mental illness to showcase Robin Williams' talents. I'm glad I didn't spend money.
I'm sorry, EJ, but I couldn't disagree with you more. My daughter suffers from a mental illness, depression, and she is the smartest, kindest, funniest person I know. I thought Robin Williams did an amazing job in Fisher King. By your standards, I guess "Rain man" and "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" were ill advised too. I think anything that brings attention to the plight of sufferers of mental illness especially in a human way (humor is good) is helpful. Mentally ill people are not necessarily evil, dark, horrible...most look and act like you and me, and they have humor and pathos in their lives, just like you and me. As a matter of fact, tomorrow they may be you and me! I think anything that causes these conditions to be brought out in the light instead of whispered about and hidden is good.
Sorry, you happened to hit one of my sensitive points.
Nothing to be sorry about.
I don't know lots about autism. I asked a young mom once if everyone just assumed her kid with autism was just like rain man and she said "Actually he's exactly like rain man.". So I guess Rain Man was great.
For One Flew Over the Cuckoo's nest while it was extremely important in shedding light on abuses that were occurring and ushering in an era of human rights, it also ushered in (somewhat) the era of deinstitutionalization, which had pros and cons. It also put out the notion that treatment itself is the disease. Chief for example makes this great escape at the end, but it real life if Chief really had a major mental illness then if they didn't find him he would probably decomp in a matter of days without his meds and would become a threat to himself or others. I think in that sense that film was at least somewhat misleading, and I don't think Jack's character would have made a great mental health councilor, but he did do some things quite well.
Further while I completely agree that people with a diagnosis of a mental illness can be funny as heck and very kind, the fact is generally psychosis like that doesn't happen from a single event and there is often a family history, not to mention the character was well beyond the average age of onset. In that sense I found it inaccurate.
I guess my general objection was that I thought the character was sorta making mental illness seem fun and wacky and like it can cured/treated with love and friendship, but in real life it's way more complicated. Obviously friendship and love improves the quality of life, often for both involved, but it doesn't cure anything.
Granted some people make strong recoveries, but usually with meds and other treatment, neither of which the character was getting.
The film is 20 years old and I'm not familiar with the mental health system of NY now, let alone then, so I'm not sure if everything was realistic, but there just seemed to be a lot of laughing with and at the illness to me, and I don't see it as a laughing thing. Not that there can't be a sense of humor to it, or that one can't love the film or find a strong redeeming message in it. I just didn't like it.
I don't know. i have a lot to learn yet and may change my mind at some point.
I didn't see the Soloist yet (with Jamie Foxx?). I found Beautiful Mind to be more realistic and accurate, although obviously not all people with mental illnesses are Princeton professors, and that man is in many ways a huge huge exception
maybe that clarifies a bit